tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36879283.post7118634974973317673..comments2024-03-20T01:16:08.502-07:00Comments on Double O Section: Valentine's Day Book Review: The Parsifal Mosaic by Robert Ludlum (1982)Tannerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03910873055922510145noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36879283.post-66530678202786917802014-02-27T20:44:54.287-08:002014-02-27T20:44:54.287-08:00Thanks for your comments, Quiller! It's always...Thanks for your comments, Quiller! It's always a pleasure to read what you have to say. "Spy Opera" is a great term for this novel! And other Ludlums. I love it! Can I use it? :) I don't know that I'd completely agree that something has to be played straight to fall into that category though. Because Shibumi, for example, feels like a spy opera to me on every level... except that it's also a parody! But not really a parody INSTEAD of being a spy opera; it seems to be legitimately both at the same time! But maybe that's a one-off exception... <br /><br />You're right that the conspiracy in The Parsifal Mosaic is one of Ludlum's best. I didn't mean to sell it short; it's just that I was personally more invested in the love story (so wonderfully twisted!) that I felt let down when it took a backseat in the second half. And you're right about that autopsy doctor business. That was also a problem with the second half. But overall, it's all pretty deliciously enjoyable! Tannerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03910873055922510145noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36879283.post-25095987756754336962014-02-27T19:04:40.103-08:002014-02-27T19:04:40.103-08:00Glad to see the Ludlum Dossier return, and at a mo...Glad to see the Ludlum Dossier return, and at a most opportune time -- the announcement that no less than Zhang Yimou will direct the film version of <i>Parsifal.</i> (Would it be a cliché if I observe that Zhang's involvement is a plot twist worthy of Ludlum himself?)<br /><br /><i>Parsifal</i> is, after nearly twenty years (my God, has it been that long?), my favorite Ludlum of all time. I read it when I was still somewhat new to Ludlum, having only read <i>Bourne Supremacy</i> and <i>Osterman Weekend</i> previously, and it remains the one Ludlum novel that I had absolutely no idea where it might be going, plot-wise. Later that same year, I made one of the worst mistakes I ever made in my thriller-reading life: I bought a copy of a book you no doubt have in your own collection, <i>The Robert Ludlum Companion</i>. Well, it didn't occur to me that such a tome was bound to be chock-a-block with spoilers. (Or, more likely, it didn't occur to me at fourteen that spoilers were a bad thing.) So pretty much every other Ludlum novel in print at that time was well and truly spoiled for me. But when I read <i>Parsifal</i>, that was all in the future. As a result, all of the big surprises and twists were indeed surprises and twists for me.<br /><br /><i>Parsifal</i> is best described as "spy opera." And what is spy opera, you ask? Well, it's a term I coined myself (so far as I know) to describe a type of spy story that is similar to the sci-fi subgenre space opera in that it emphasizes larger-than-life action and adventure, with ultra-high stakes and world-shaking consequences, and containing multiple competing political/national/governmental factions. I regard Ludlum as having invented the spy opera form, and I confess it's hard to think of other writers whose work qualify. Clancy in <i>Sum of All Fears</i>, maybe, and Frederick Forysth in his "not-too-distant-future" thrillers like <i>The Fourth Protocol, The Negotiatior</i> and <i>Icon.</i> (Le Carre would never qualify as spy opera; the stakes in his novels are never high enough, and of course that's by design on his part.) Similarly, what separates James Bond stories from spy opera is that in my experience, spy operas are played absolutely on the level with no tongue-in-cheek or self-parody elements.<br /><br />I agree with you that the novel goes somewhat haywire in the second half, but for a different reason: so much of theaction rising toward the climax centers on an amazing narrative digression -- namely, who performed the autopsy on a character who never appears alive at any time in the novel. Twenty years on I'm still not sure what that was supposed to prove. But it makes up for that with the most wickedly insidious of Ludlum's global conspiracies, as well as being the one true Cold War thriller in Ludlum's canon. It also has one of Ludlum's best and most affecting heroes: Michael Havelock is a genuinely compelling character, not the usual Ludlum scion of privilege but a haunted man who's been running, we understand, all his life. David Webb and Brandon Scofield at least had some memory of a normal life before they turned to spying, but Havelock was forced to become a killer and survivalist far too early in life, as a child. The love story between Havelock and Jenna is indeed truly twisted and even perverse, and will make great cinema viewing when the time comes. And as screwy as this is going to sound, the novel's fictional President Charles Berquist is probably my favorite president in all of thriller fiction; you totally feel the man's keen intelligence, and his horror at the awful trap he's in.<br /><br />Anyway, great review, and a Zhang-directed film version is by definition one of my most anticipated films of the coming year or so.Quillernoreply@blogger.com